Venus Out in Shocker at Australian Open

Posted on January 16, 2006

While punters had chosen the younger, overweight Williams sister as the odds-on favorite to duck out in round one at the 2006 Australian Open, it was the shocking opposite on opening-day Monday when sprite 18-year-old Bulgarian Tszvetana Pironkova ousted the No. 10-seeded Venus 2-6, 6-0, 9-7.

"I had so many unforced errors, I just was struggling to keep the ball in today," said Venus who offered up a whopping 65 unforced gifts to her opponent. "Just couldn't get it right. Obviously, she benefited from my largesse. But it's the beginning of the year, and I feel like I still have a lot of success ahead of me. It's just my first event."

Williams had dropped only four games to Pironkova in their lone meeting last year at Istanbul.

The Bulgarian teen, who came into the match ranked No. 94 on the WTA Rankings, played reminiscent of Jelena Dokic in her finest days, with a consistent rhythmic slugging to her baseline assault that the elder Williams sister could only marvel at in the end.

"I was little nervous in the beginning of the match," said Pironkova, playing in her maiden grand slam event. "Then when I sit down the break between the sets, I said to myself, 'It's okay, you are here in the Vodafone Arena, this big court, you need to show some tennis to the audience. Just relax and play your game.' And that happened. I know Venus since long time from the TV when I just was a little kid. I always love her game. But when I go on court, I should not think about that, that she was kind of my idol before. I just have to play tennis, and I did."

"I play better the longer the match goes on," Serena said. "I just was able to -- you know, I wasn't hitting out. At one point I started blocking too many balls. I just decided that I needed to hit out...I feel amazing right now. I just feel like dancing. I can just hear this song, this Beyonce song "Check on It." I just feel like getting down, doing the eagle. I have a lot of energy right now, it's really hot. I'm feeling much better than I have at the (US) Open -- Wimbledon, too."

"I actually felt pretty good," said Sharapova of her multitude of injuries, including shoulder, pectoral muscle and rib problems. "I'm really happy about it because that's one of the first times I played a match without feeling anything. You know, I don't expect it to be that like for the whole tournament. So I'm very happy I got through that one without any pain."

For Henin-Hardenne the first round was a tester, coming off injury and a win in her first event last week at Sydney.

"I was a little bit concerned about my recovery this weekend after the hard match I had in Sydney," Henin-Hardenne said. "But that was good. I think at the beginning of the match, I was a little bit tired. It was pretty hard for me to move well. But after a few games, I was feeling very comfortable on the court."

Dokic prematurely celebrated after hitting what she thought was a forehand winner on her first match point in the second set.

"I would have to say one of the most disappointing losses probably in my career so far," said Dokic after blowing match points against Razzano then folding 6-1 in the third. "Yeah, it was difficult. I was already really happy, and then half an hour later I was, you know, the most disappointed that I've ever had."